He is a rocker, a musician, and he plays with Bruce Springsteen and The E Street band. Oh, and he was also on The Sopranos. Now Steven Van Zandt is having more TV success. His new show, Lilyhammer a comedy drama about an FBI informer hiding from the Mafia in Scandinavia is getting high ratings in Europe and it’s on its way here thanks to Netflix. Steven achieved widespread TV respect from his work on The Sopranos, and the role he plays in this new show is not that dissimilar to his previous character. Still he is shocked and stunned by the success of his new show. Will you check out season 1 of Lilyhammer on Netflix?

Steven told Rolling Stone magazine, “The first week, it blew everybody’s mind – biggest viewership in history. And everybody, including me, thought, ‘Well, it’s probably just a curiosity. We have a lot of fans from the E Street Band, and we do have a lot of fans from the old Sopranos. It must be a curiosity factor. But, in the second week, the average increased another five or 10 per cent. Then, in the third week… it increased another five to 10 per cent. So something really weird is going on over there. I’m hearing nothing but positive things.”

It is very exciting that the show is enjoying such success over in Europe, but I wonder how it will be received over here in the States? The comedy drama is part of the Netflix “original online content drive”, which has come about because they are aiming to bring more viewers online and reduce the high cost and complications of buying high quality content. Basically they have the exclusivity and will be releasing the show as a new series. This will be the first time they release an original online TV show. They are also going to be releasing all eight episodes of the show on the same date, which is a big change for Netflix.

I am very keen to see the first season and will be definitely getting it through my Netflix account. I am not surprised that Lilyhammer is doing well given how many fans there were of The Sopranos and The E Street Band. He is one multi-talented artist Mr. Van Zandt. I am very keen to see his new work.